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SEOUL, June 18 (Reuters) - South Korea has pledged to donate
a total of $200 million to the COVAX programme that is supplying
coronavirus vaccines for lower-income countries, the Global
Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) said on Friday.
COVAX, backed by GAVI and the World Health Organization
(WHO), aims to secure 2 billion vaccine doses by the end of
2021.
“The Republic of Korea pledges a contribution of a total of
$100 million this year, and in 2022 another $100 million in the
form of a combination of financial and in-kind contribution,”
South Korean President Moon Jae-in said in a statement by GAVI.
While wealthy nations with robust vaccination campaigns have
inoculated large swaths of their population, much of the world
lags far behind, raising concerns of more COVID-19 waves that
could spawn new virus variants.
Leaders from the Group of Seven rich nations agreed over the
weekend to pledge 870 million vaccine doses, with the aim of
delivering at least half by the end of this year. WHO
Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus welcomed this on
Monday but said many more doses were needed and
quickly.
(Reporting by Heekyong Yang
Editing by Frances Kerry)
